For Tony’s birthday on January 11, we talked about going out for breakfast, but I wanted to make a special breakfast for him. He loves Ellie Krieger’s whole wheat pancakes (I use the recipe in her cookbook, “The Food You Crave”, you can find a similar recipe here.), but I decided to make them even more exiting by adding blueberries. I had stocked up on blueberries when they were in season over the summer and then froze them just for purposes like this.

I always make the full pancake recipe, rather than cut it in half, as the leftover pancakes reheat well make for a delightful treat for breakfast during the work week. I started by measuring out the wet and dry ingredients, preheating the griddle, and preheating the oven to 200 degrees, so that I could keep the pancakes warm as I made them. I also got out about 1 cup of blueberries and let them thaw by running some cold water over them and then draining them as I made the pancake batter.

The combination of the all-purpose flour and whole wheat pastry flour called for in the recipe makes for slightly heartier and nuttier tasting pancake; the buttermilk gives them that perfect pancake flavor. After combining the wet and dry ingredients, I was ready to start cooking.

The cast iron griddle (the other side of our grill pan, the done without the ridges that give everything such pretty grill marks) goes across two burners, meaning I can make three pancakes at a time. I sprayed the grill pan with cooking spray and used a 1/4 measuring cup to ladle the batter on to the hot griddle. Once bubbles starting forming on top of the pancakes (mine took a little longer than the minute and half that directions stated), I dotted the blueberries all around the top of the pancakes and flipped them. Another few minutes of cooking on the other side and they were ready to go into the oven to stay warm. I sprayed the griddle with cooking spray again (I find I have to do this for every batch) and made another three pancakes. I repeated until I had 12 pancakes.

We enjoyed the blueberry pancakes with a drizzle of maple syrup and some hot, black coffee. Who needs birthday breakfast out!